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Open Hearts ...

Thursday, March 19, 2015. The bible invites us to open our heart to God, the Lord. This invitation is given again and again through all the biblical books. It is both an invitation and a need. We need to open our hearts - only here life can be found. Only here peace and rest can be found.

What is the difficulty? …

What is the difficulty in opening our heart? Do we have open hearts? How can you tell?

When I search myself, I find both: an open heart and a hard heart within myself. I see my own longing for the Lord, my longing for his justice, his mercy, his kindness. I see my longing for his truth and his kingdom. I admire him, I search him, I follow him. No doubt about this.

On the other hand, I also see my frustration. My heart is hard, partly. It does not believe completely. It is frustrated, and cannot grasp the goodness of the Lord. But it is part of faith to believe in his goodness. Belief means to become open, such that your mind, your emotions and your actions follow him. When your trust forgets all doubts, your heart is fully open! He IS the trustworthy eternal saviour!

Do not harden your hearts! …

7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

(Psalm 95, 7-11)

What would a responsible prophet of God tell you? Open your heart. See that he is good! See what he did in Jesus - in his life, and at the cross. It is about complete salvation. It is about full justice. It is about a perfect sacrifice for all, who cannot be just. He know us too well. And he has long prepared his response, his salvation act. Here, you can forget your doubts, since his goodness is openly visible.

We do not have to test him again. His answer to our test is there already. He himself has made a sign, which clarifies his heart. He opened his heart already - to let us look into it. In Jesus, God's heart is openly visible. Is it necessary to do this every day again? It is there, powerful, active! His invitation stands, for you and for me today. Listen to the spirit of God, right where you are. (RWEP) ... more texts